UNews - CAIP

Exploring How The Brain Recovers From A Stroke

david.kirby — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 20:30:12 +0000

“Neuroscience today is like how physics was in the 17th century. We are living in an era that is rapidly changing the way we think about the brain and its ability to process and remember information and recover from injury, just like 400 years ago when we had a rapid advancement in our understanding of the universe. It is an exciting time as we really are just beginning to understand how the brain works and what we can do to improve its functioning.”

Dr. Majid Mohajerani is the U of L's Campus Alberta Innovation Program Chair in Brain Health and Dementia.

That’s how Dr. Majid Mohajerani describes what to him is both the challenge and the thrill of his work as a neuroscientist at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. And now as the university’s Campus Alberta Innovation Program Chair in Brain Health and Dementia, Mohajerani is diving deeper into the mysteries of the brain by studying what happens after it is injured.

Specifically, Mohajerani is researching how the brain is affected by micro stroke, also referred to as a transient ischemic attack, or the transient disruption of blood flow in the brain resulting in neurological dysfunction. He wants to understand how such an event impacts the structural and functional changes in the brain circuit that affect neuroplasticity, the processes involved in human development, learning and memory formation.

“After a stroke happens in the brain, not only motor deficits, it also causes problems in cognitive function and memory, and results in dementia,” says Mohajerani. “We really don’t know how this phenomenon or process works, but it is an important question to answer because dementia is a huge problem in Canadian society.”

Indeed, a 2012 study commissioned by the Alzheimer Society of Canada found that the number of Canadians living with cognitive impairment, including dementia, stands at 747,000, and will double to 1.4 million by 2031.

Mohajerani originally trained to become a biomedical engineer, but while completing his master’s degree at Amirkabir ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Technology in Iran, where he learned how to use artificial neural networks to analyse brain functional activity. The subject got him fascinated with the brain’s complex processes, including how it learns and how it heals after an assault, and he ultimately switch into the field of neuroscience.

In his lab at the U of L’s Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, Mohajerani is studying the details of brain activity right before, during and right after a stroke occurs in the brains of mice. He is conducting these experiments using narrow band imaging technology, a cutting-edge research tool that provides an in-depth picture of the brain, the underlying neural circuits of the brain and how the brain uses its own plasticity mechanism to recover from neural damage.

He will also share his passion for better understanding the brain with U of L students through a new fourth-year elective undergraduate course he is developing in neural technology that he will start teaching next semester. And starting in 2016, he will teach another new course that he will create, a mandatory undergraduate course for neuroscience students about molecular cellular neuroscience.

By the end of his seven-year term, Mohajerani hopes his brain mapping and stroke recovery research will yield insights into how to more effectively address stroke-related symptoms such as dementia.

“My ultimate goal is to contribute to the development of tools and pharmacology therapies that help improve the quality of life for people who have dementia, and provide preventative treatment to those who don’t.”

Making Strides in Environmental and Medical Science

david.kirby — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 18:36:52 +0000

The horizon for sustainable energy and cancer treatment may soon become a little bit brighter, thanks to pioneering new research being performed by Dr. Nehalkumar Thakor.

Dr. Nehalkumar Thakor is the new Campus Alberta Innovates Program Chair of Synthetic Biology and RNA-based Systems at the U of L.

Thakor is the new Campus Alberta Innovates Program Chair of Synthetic Biology and RNA-based Systems at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. Appointed to the seven-year position this past September, the microbiologist is undertaking an innovative research program that will explore two distinct aspects of gene expression regulation. The first will look at how to use metabolic engineering and gene expression to produce sustainable energy.

“Humankind is being challenged right now because we are running out of our fossil fuel supply and we need an alternative energy source,” says Thakor, who is also an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “My general objective is to study RNA-based system biology, particularly in the area of energy and environment.”

RNA, or ribonucleic acid, is a molecule involved in a variety of biological functions, including coding, decoding, regulating and expressing genes. Thakor’s goal is to try to use RNA to adjust the genetic expression that occurs in the cells of microorganisms. Achieving that would make it possible to then feed microorganisms plant waste that they would then convert into glucose, a core ingredient of biofuel.

This type of biofuel, Thakor says, is more sustainable than the most common alternatives currently available — biodiesel and bioethanol, both of which rely on using agriculture (canola for biodiesel and corn for ethanol) for their production.

“The problem is that lots of arable land is required to produce those biofuels, and this ultimately competes with food production,” he says. He adds that ultimately his research could improve the sustainability of other biotechnological processes, such as those involved in producing antibiotics and biodegradable plastics.

Thakor’s second research priority is to examine the role of gene expression regulation in protein translation during oncogenesis, or the formation of cancer. Specifically, he wants to understand why a regular a cell exposed to stress — such as being deprived of oxygen or nutrients — will die, but a cancer cell will survive.

Much of the existing research on this subject has shown that cancer cells increase the rate of protein synthesis — a vital cellular process that regulates growth and metabolism — which ultimately promotes the survival and progression of cancer. Thakor will investigate the cellular, biochemical, molecular and structural aspects of the regulation of protein translation to determine how these processes affect the development of cancer.

“By learning more about how protein translation occurs in cancer cells, it may provide us with insights into how we can create more effective cancer treatments,” he says.

In addition to his research, Thakor is also developing two new graduate-level elective courses: one on gene expression in health and disease, which he will start teaching in January, and another on immunology.

“I hope my research and teaching can provide students with a basis of understanding of different environmental- and health-related aspects of science and help them go on to become skilled scientists and good doctors,” he says.

Passion for fishing fuels research ambition

trevor.kenney — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 17:33:34 +0000

Make no mistake, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge's new Chair in Aquatic Health, Dr. Greg Pyle, loves to dangle a line in the water. In fact, it's that love for fishing and environment that motivated Pyle to pursue a career in aquatic studies. It is also a focus of his research program, to take what he learns in the lab and apply it to the glorious outdoors.

Dr. Greg Pyle is the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's new Chair in Aquatic Health, the first of four Chairs joining the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in 2013 as part of the CAIP program.

"I think it's critical actually, in helping you understand it from a different perspective than just the pure academic research perspective," says Pyle, who came to the U of L as part of the Government of Alberta's Campus Alberta Innovation Program (CAIP) Chairs plan.

"It's good to know how these systems work out there. It's a real central theme in my research program, understanding how the effects that we demonstrate under controlled lab conditions translate out into the real world, that's a really important consideration in what we do in our research."

Pyle, originally from Sarnia, Ont., was a mortgage salesman in Mississauga, Ont. who grew tired of the "Hwy 400 parking lot every Friday" as he tried to escape the city and head to northern Ontario to fish.

"The start of my career was simply a matter of how do I find a way to make a living in a boat catching fish," says Pyle.

So, he moved north, enrolled at Laurentian ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in Sudbury, Ont., and began to study fish biology. His field study took him to the Elliot Lake Research Field Station and he began working on fish toxicity in uranium mining affected waters. A career was born.

Pyle comes to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ after spending the previous five years as head of the Aquatic Biotechnology and Ecotoxicology Laboratory at Lakehead ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in Thunder Bay, Ont. Prior to taking up a Canada Research Chair in Environmental Biotechnology and Ecotoxicology at Lakehead, Pyle helped establish and build the Department of Biology at Nipissing ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. He earned both his bachelor and master's degrees from Laurentian and received his PhD from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Saskatchewan.

The move to Lethbridge as part of the CAIP program is a natural one for Pyle, who recognizes the strong reputation the U of L has cultivated in respect to aquatic research and sees a natural fit with the work he is doing.

Working with the FORWARD III Research Project, Pyle has been employing water quality models to areas where there have been large landscape disturbances.

"The models have been developed in a forestry context and we want to see whether or not they work with other large-scale impacts at a landscape level," says Pyle. "That means mining and bitumen extraction."

Naturally, that brought him to Alberta and fieldwork north of Fort McMurray. This summer, Pyle will work with his master's student, Steven Beery, on a three-way reciprocal cross transplant experiment in which they will collect invertebrate animals from one clean water source and two potentially contaminated sites. One site will contain natural bitumen and another will have potentially been contaminated by the industrial operations in Fort McMurray.

"We'll be trying to find out whether contaminated animals rid themselves of environmental contaminants when they are put into a clean environment or are the effects more or less permanent? Similarly, if we move clean animals into contaminated sites, we want to know to what extent they take up the contaminant," he says.

A second summer project, in addition to the lab work he and his team will be leading, is a study in the Sudbury, Ont., area where they will look at yellow perch and how they respond to metal contamination, specifically how metals interfere with their sense of smell.

As he did at Laurentian, Pyle will actively engage students, both undergraduate and graduate, in his research activities.

"I have always included undergraduate students in my research program," says Pyle. "I've found that bringing them in at an early stage, sometimes as early as second year, if you give a student good guidance and the resources to do something well, you can get great results. When you find the right student who is motivated to get the work done, I find they do an amazing job. This is how you turn them on to science and what feeds into our graduate programs."

They also might help Pyle get a little more time on the water – as a fisherman as opposed to a researcher. And what exactly does Pyle like to fish for?

"Whatever happens to bite my line," he laughs.

GET THE FACTS

· Pyle's wife Laurie is a project manager remotely building a 3G cellular network back in Ontario

· Pyle has two sons who both live in Thunder Bay, Ont. Tyler is a chef and David is a recreational therapist

· Pyle was able to bring a post-doctoral fellow, Bill Dew, as well as a master's candidate, Steven Beery, with him as part of the CAIP Chairs program

· Pyle's CAIP funding is over the course of seven years and he is the first of four CAIP Chairs who will be coming to the U of L

This story first appeared in the March 2013 issue of the Legend. For a look at the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

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